Valve closure for wind instruments



INVENTOR. James Fbu 7-1 5 /Wu V W Filed Aug. 11, 1960 J POLITIS VALVECLOSURE FOR WIND INSTRUMENTS Dec. 18, 1962 United States Patent Cfiflce3,058,736 Patented Dec. 18, 1962 3,068,736 VALVE CLOSURE FOR WINDINSTRUMENTS James Politis, Croton Falls, N.Y. Filed Aug. 11, 1960, Ser.No. 49,043 4 Claims. (Cl. 84-380) This invention relates to an improvedvalve closure for wind instruments and more particularly to a curved,padless valve closure for wood-wind instruments such as saxophones,clarinets, flutes and the like.

In the past in order to prevent leakage of air, collars were built uparound the tone holes and the keys were padded with felt material whichwas usually covered with a moisture repelling substance (such as fishskin) to avoid saturation and warpage. The building up of the tone holescreates baffling effect along the inner surface of the instrument, thusrequiring greater effort by the player to obtain the desired result. Thebaffling effect also mar the tones of the notes produced by theinstrument. Moreover, the padding of the keys absorbs a great deal ofthe sound of the instrument, making it necessary to exert a greatereifort to play the instrument, resulting in distorted tones to thenotes.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a valve closurewhich will prevent air leakage, resists moisture and warpage without thenecessity of using pads. It is another object of this invention toprovide an improved valve closure which will not distort the tone of thenotes by the necessity of using collars around the tone holes. These andother objects will be apparent from the following detailed description.

The present invention solves these problems by a new construction whichdoes away with the need for collars around the tone holes and for thepadding of the keys. Therefore, according to this invention there isprovided a valve closure for a wind instrument having a body portionwith a center projection adapted to close a tone hole in the windstrument, the projection consisting of the same material as theinstrument, and being constructed in such a manner that the projectioncompletely fills the tone hole in such a manner that there is no airleakage and the bottom portion of the projection has no padding andcorresponds to the interior contour of the instruments body.

The valve closure of the invention is used in connection with any of thewell-known key arrangements which are in use on wind instruments at thepresent time.

Reference should now be made to the following description and to theaccompanying drawing for a more complete understanding of the invention.

In the drawing FIG. 1 is a plane View of a flute embodying the invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 22 of FIG. 1showing the improved valve construction in a closed position.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 2 withthe improved valve in the closed position.

FIG. 4 is a view taken along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1 with the improvedvalve in an open position.

FIG. 5 is a view taken along the line 33 of FIG. 2 with the improvedvalve in an open position.

For the sake of clarity the accompanying drawing only shows the improvedpadless valve closure in detail since it is assumed that it will be usedin connection with any of the well-known key arrangements. Furthermore,the invention will be illustrated with reference to a flute although itis equally applicable to other wind instruments.

The body of a flute 10, including the mouth piece 11 is made from theusual materials of which wind instruments are made.

The valve closures 13 embody the present invention.

Each valve closure 13 is made of the same material as the body of theflute 10. The valve closure may have an outside contour 14 which isdefined by the arc of a circle having a larger radius but the samecenter as the circle defining the outside contour of the body of theflute.

The underside of the valve closures 13 have a raised integral centralprojection 17 made of the same material as the flute body 10. The raisedcentral projection 17 is of such a height that when the valve closure isin the closed position the interior surface 16 of the flute body 10 willbe continuously smooth and will not result in the formation of baflles.The valve closure 13 has a depending flange 18 on the same surface asthe raised central projection 17, the flange 18 being coincident withthe outer edge of the valve closure 13.

The contour of the undersides 15 of the valve closure projections 17 aredefined by an arc of a circle having the same radius and center as thecircuit defining the inside contour 16 of the body 10 of the flute.

The valve closure 13 is so constructed that there is a groove 19 betweenthe raised central portion 17 and the flange 18. The groove 19 isprovided with a gasket 20 which in the preferred embodiment is of a typeknown as an O-ring gasket.

In the present invention the gasket is outside the area of the tone hole21 which is cut in the body 10 of the flute.

The tone hole 21 is located in a substantially saddle shape depressiondefined by the intersection of a spheroidal shape with the cylindricalshape of the flute body containing in the center thereof a hole as isusually present in a flute tone hole.

The co-action of the saddle shaped depression of the tone hole 21 andthe valve closure 13 make it unnecessary to have the collars and padswhich were required in the previous construction of flutes and likeinstruments.

What is claimed is:

1. A Wind instrument having a body portion of a predetermined materialwith a relatively thin wall, said instrument having at least one tonehole extending through said body portion, the outer surface of said bodyportion being relatively smooth adjacent said tone hole, and a cover forsaid tone hole pivotally mounted on said body portion, said cover havinga central portion adjacent said tone hole of a material havingacoustical properties similar to those of the predetermined material ofsaid body portion, the contour of said central portion conforming tothat of the interior of said body portion when said cover is closed, andsaid cover having a peripheral gasket portion contacting said relativelysmooth outer surface of said body portion when said cover is closed.

spear/as which the peripheral gasket portion of said cover includessubstantially uniform transverse cross-section for a portion a flangesubstantially coincident with the circumference of the length of saidbody portion adjacent said tone hole. of said cover adjacent the sideopposite said central portion, said flange projecting toward the rim ofsaid tone References ited in the file of this patent hole and defining agroove around said central portion, 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS and a gasketdisposed in said groove and extending therefrom to provide a seal tosaid body portion when said 1,376,986 Wintefhofi y 1921 cover is closed.2,292,767 Page Aug. 11, 1942 4. A wind instrument in accordance withclaim 1 in 2,311,167 Gage Feb. 16, 1943 which said relatively thin wallof said body portion has a 10

